


it's nice to have a friend (what's your name?)

by electricvallie



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Zukka Week 2021, it's a tea shop but same idea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 15:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30091374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electricvallie/pseuds/electricvallie
Summary: Zuko is developing a sort-of friendship with the objectively-too-attractive stranger who has started frequenting his uncle’s tea shop.Granted, he’s not sure how much you can become friends with someone you talk to for fifteen minutes as you make their tea, but still. Embarrassingly, it’s the closest Zuko’s come to making a new friend in a long time.It’s not like he doesn’t have friends, of course. Zuko sees Mai and Ty Lee semi-frequently and Toph is at the shop at least three times a week. But he’s known all of them for ages, hence the lack of new friends in his social sphere.There’s just one, slight issue with the whole situation: he has no idea what the guy’s actual name is.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 166





	it's nice to have a friend (what's your name?)

Zuko is developing a sort-of friendship with the objectively-too-attractive stranger who has started frequenting his uncle’s tea shop. 

Granted, he’s not sure how much you can become friends with someone you talk to for fifteen minutes as you make their tea, but still. Embarrassingly, it’s the closest Zuko’s come to making a new friend in a long time.

It’s not like he doesn’t have friends, of course. Zuko sees Mai and Ty Lee semi-frequently and Toph is at the shop at least three times a week. But he’s known all of them for ages, hence the lack of new friends in his social sphere.

There’s just one, slight issue with the whole situation: he has no idea what the guy’s actual name is.

Every time the beautiful stranger comes in to order tea, he gives Zuko a different name, each seeming more outrageous than the last. 

The first time this happened, Zuko was less than amused.

( _ “Captain Boomerang?” The boy smiles. Zuko tries his best to ignore how dazzling it is. _

_ “Yup!” Zuko blinks. Once. Twice. Three Times _

_ “Your name is…Captain Boomerang?” Normally he wouldn’t even ask twice, but the boy’s…well, everything is distracting Zuko enough that he’s forgotten the basic tenet of his job in customer service. Distracting, Zuko thinks, and slightly annoying. He just wants to get through the shift. _

_ “Indeed it is! Boomerang with two ‘o’s!” Zuko scowls. _

_ “I know how to spell boomerang.” His tone is snippy and defensive. To the boy’s credit, he doesn’t react to Zuko’s obvious displeasure. Instead, he shoots Zuko another blinding smile and makes sure to put money in the tip jar once he’s paid.  _ )

Zuko spent the rest of that shift in a huff, largely because he thought he’d never see the boy again. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

The boy has come in every shift Zuko’s worked for the past three weeks, each time with a different, ridiculously outlandish name.

In Zuko’s opinion, the worst one had been Wang Fire, which was objectively illogical. When Zuko told the boy this, he laughed loudly. It was melodic and warm and made a strange feeling rumble in Zuko’s chest for the rest of the day. 

Today, however, Zuko’s been too busy to even think about the boy’s probable appearance.

It’s a Saturday, which is the Jasmine Dragon’s busiest day by far. College students studying and young professionals alike make up a steady stream of customers throughout the entire day, leaving little time to catch your breath, much less think about what crazy name a new regular is going to give you. 

He almost thinks the boy isn’t going to come in. He still hasn’t made an appearance by the time the clock strikes two, an hour before close, and the stream of people starts steadily tapering off.

At two-fifteen, however, the boy does show up.

Zuko’s cleaning one of the tea kettles when he walks in, but he instantly snaps up when he realizes who the new customer is.

Something is different today with the boy. He looks almost sullen. It makes Zuko feel strangely sad for his sort-of-friend. 

The boy brightens slightly when he sees Zuko, placing his order for what is clearly a random drink off the menu. He never orders the same thing twice. 

“And what’s the name for that?” Zuko asks him expectantly. The boy pauses.

“Snoozles.” Zuko raises an eyebrow.

“Snoozles? That one isn’t even a name.” The boy gives him a small smile.

“Well, according to Toph it is.” Zuko’s eyebrow shoots further up his face. It’s a strange coincidence that they both know someone named Toph, especially because it’s not a particularly common name.

“My friend Toph would just call you a dunderhead. Although,” he adds “I guess she calls me Sparky. So maybe it’s a people-named-Toph thing.” The boy laughs and it almost sounds nervous.

“Yeah. Crazy how we have two different friends named Toph!” He fidgets uncomfortably, his tone rising at the end of the sentence and drifting off into a mutter. Zuko doesn’t push it, instead just opting to nod. No use risking whatever tentative friendship they might have, he figures.

Zuko’s the only person scheduled to close at the shop today, so he walks with the boy as he makes the complicated tea drink that he ordered. 

As the pot is brewing, Zuko makes a split second decision.

“Er—I don’t want to overstep, but, are you alright?” The boy looks surprised.

“How’d you know?” Now Zuko smiles. It’s small, but it’s definitely there. If Mai and Ty Lee saw him right now they’d never let him hear the end of how completely obvious his crush is. Luckily, there’s no one else in the shop, save for a couple students packing up their things.

“You’re normally a lot more energetic,” is the explanation Zuko offers. What he doesn’t say is how the other boy’s enthusiasm always makes him feel better, even if he was annoyed by the antics at first. He’s grown to rather enjoy their brief interactions.

“You’ve got me there, Zuko.” 

Zuko is briefly startled by the other boy’s use of his name, but then he remembers that he is, in fact, wearing a nametag. He fiddles with the stack of cups.

“Well, uh, I’m not as good at giving advice as my uncle, but if you want to talk about it…” Zuko trails off nervously.

He doesn’t have time to overthink this after he says it, because the boy positively beams. It’s just for a split second, though, as the sullen expression returns to his face.

“Y’know how midterms are this week?” Zuko nods. He’d have to be living under a rock not to notice the extremely stressed gaggles of students that have been frequenting the shop since Monday. Plus, he’s also a student at Ba Sing Se University, so he totally understands the struggle. “Well,” the boy breathes, “I totally failed my mechanical engineering one today!”

Zuko frowns. “How do you know you failed? Did you get the grades back yet?”

“No, but I can just feel it. It’s the vibe, Zuko! The whole vibe of the test was off. H Zuko can’t help the half-smile he gives at the boy’s emphatic description. “How am I going to be successful in the real world if I can’t pass a mechanical engineering test?”

The thing is, Zuko completely understands the feeling. He’s always second-guessing the work he submits, agonizing over every word of the copious essays his English Lit major requires until they all jumble together and cease to look real. So he doesn’t tell the boy that everything will probably be better than he thinks. That won’t help.

“What will happen if you do fail?” He asks. The boy looks surprised again, but proceeds to answer the question.

“It’ll probably lower my semester grade,” Zuko tilts his head thoughtfully.

“Would you still pass?” The boy nods.

“I don’t want to just pass, though. I want to be great at what I do, not just passable”

This Zuko also understands, which makes it hard for him to give any sort of meaningful advice. Luckily, his uncle had a similar conversation with him a couple weeks ago.

“One test doesn’t determine how good you’ll be as a mechanical engineer. Neither does one class. And it definitely doesn’t say anything about who you are as a person.” Zuko smiles at the boy, for real this time. “I’m sure you’ll be a great engineer. You’re certainly creative enough for it.” He gestures at the name on the cup, eliciting a genuine belly laugh from the other boy.

“Thanks Zuko,” the boy says. Zuko once again tries (and fails) to not be startled by the use of his name. “I needed to hear that.”

“My uncle had to say it to me last week,” Zuko adds. The boy smiles. There’s a moment of silence, which ends abruptly with the sound of the timer for the boy’s tea. As Zuko pours it into the proper cup, he ignores the fluttering in his stomach.

“I hope your day gets better, uh, ‘Snoozles,’” Zuko calls to him as he heads to the door.The boy’s toothy grin is back now. He gives Zuko a wave.

“It just did!”

Needless to say Zuko ruminates on that interaction for the rest of the weekend.

On Tuesday, when Zuko has his next shift, he’s slightly nervous about seeing the boy again. He’s not sure what’s going to happen when he does.

It’s a morning shift, which means Zuko has lots of cleaning and set-up to do to take his mind off of everything. Normally, he detests these shifts but today it brings a bit of peace to his chaotic thoughts. 

He shouldn’t even be entertaining his crush on the boy, Zuko thinks to himself bitterly. Not only is there  _ no way _ it’s reciprocated, he also doesn’t even know the boy’s name!

Zuko shakes his head. The clock reads 7:55 a.m. It’s time to open the shop and stop thinking about his problems.

It’s about 9 o’clock when the boy comes in, which is much earlier than his usual visits. To Zuko’s surprise, he looks sort of nervous as he walks up to the counter and places his order.

As the boy is paying, he fiddles with his hands. Then, he looks up at Zuko, determination in his eyes.

“Okay, Zuko, I’ve got a bit of a confession to make.” Zuko tilts his head. “I don’t actually like tea.” 

Now Zuko is extremely confused. “But you’ve come to the shop every time I’ve worked for the past month! How can you not like tea?”

“I’m not coming for the tea, I’m coming to see you.” The boy says quickly.    
  


Zuko stands there for a good thirty seconds, completely shell-shocked. 

He finally manages to sputter out a shaky “ _ What _ ? Why?”

“Because,” the boy says, “you’re cute and you’re funny and you think I’m funny, which is especially important, and you give really good advice, even though you didn’t know me well. But I want you to. Did I mention that you’re cute? I think I did.” The boy runs a hand through his hair, nervously. “I guess what I’m asking is if you’ll go on a date with me? We can get tea! I’m starting to like it more!”

Zuko is once again completely stunned. He doesn’t want to take too long to process, though, for fear that the boy will think he’s rejecting him.

“Yes, I’d like that,” Zuko says, a smile creeping onto his face. “One question first, though.”

The boy nods vehemently, sincerity on his face.

“Name for the order?” 

They smile, really smile at each other and it’s everything.

“Sokka.”

Zuko writes it on the cup with a flourish. Underneath it, he scribbles the digits of his phone number.

“Well Sokka, my only request for our date is that we don’t get tea. I don’t really like it either. But please don’t tell my uncle that. I don’t think he’d ever recover.” 

Sokka grins at him.

When Zuko gets a text from Sokka later that night, it’s the start of something that doesn’t end.

( _ Their first date is at a coffee shop, but Sokka never does stop visiting Zuko at work. He never starts using his real name for the orders, either. _

_ When they retell the story to Toph—their mutual friend Toph, who is definitely not two separate people—she thinks it’s hilarious. _

_ “Snoozles,” she says to Sokka. “I didn’t realize  _ that  _ was why you asked for Sparky’s work schedule!” _

_ Sokka blushes profusely. Zuko gapes at him. “You asked for my work schedule? I thought you just came in every day!” _

_ “I thought you were cute!” Sokka says, hands help up in surrender. “Besides, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to keep flirting with you!” Zuko shakes his head. _

_  
_ _ “Sokka,” he says, voice serious but eyes beaming, “you’re the only person who thinks referring to yourself as ‘Captain Boomerang’ is flirting.”  _

_ “Well it worked, didn’t it?” _

_ Zuko can’t argue with that.) _

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> hi guys!!
> 
> i think this might be my favorite thing i've written so far this week!! I'm a sucker for both coffeeshop aus (or tea shop aus) and meet-cutes so this one was a given.
> 
> hope you all enjoy!!
> 
> -vallie <3


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